650 Responses

I rather hope someone does some decent , dear I say it, detective work and finds out just how this boy got beatenI hope it was not the police taking the law into their own hands, or any variation on that theme

I hope it was not the police taking the law into their own hands, or any variation on that theme

I can't see any other explanation. And, you know, a police officer in Christchurch may have seen some things you wouldn't want to see, and be feeling very emotional. But the idea that we just wave this through is awful.

thank you Russell and thank you Chris Trotter for asking the questions.

Yes. I had read the Herald story where Arie's family explained about him, but I had not seen a photo of him or read any hint that he might have been mistreated. If it were not for Chris -- and I have to say I don't normally have a lot of time for him -- I would have missed this completely.

So deeply upsetting. As if taking some light fittings were 1) a huge crime, anyway and 2) looting. Arrant nonsense. And how did someone not notice this young man's beaten face? What angers me the most about this case is that Michael Laws and others like him are doing exactly the thing that they accuse others of doing. They are using a national disaster to justify their own actions. Contemptible.

Yet again there seems to be this complete disconnection from thinking about WHY people commit crimes, and thus how we should address those needs ahead of time to avoid crime itself. Far easier just to think of it in an Us and Them sense - They being the crims who are almost all beyond help and thus need to be corralled somewhere away from Us. When actually they're really being other members of the Us group with different circumstances; a disability, a different upbringing, got laid off when we didn't, etc.

Sorry if Ihaven't explained that very well, been a long time since commenting.

Where is the compassion? Where is the genuine commitment to addressing bad stuff that happens in our society by trying to stop it from happening, rather than just locking people up (and in this case beating someone up) afterwards?

(And I'm not saying that taking some light fittings when you have a compulsion to do so is "bad stuff" by the way, very clumsy in my thinking tonight I'm afraid)

I am a poster who said they should throw the book at looters when this story turned up. Hindsight is a powerful weapon. I wonder how many others thought the same thing as me. I suspect half the bloody country. How correct would I be to suggest that Chris Trotter too thought that until the parents came to the rescue.

I am not trying to legitimise my comment at all but should we really need to be that suspicious of Plice (and whoever) to contrive such a court scene in the stairwell?

I saw the cellmate comment in the Herald – and was duly shocked at the prospect of the Minister of Police tacitly condoning prison rape, but I suspect we have had all had other things to think about…

It is probably human nature to see some lowlife (oh, Clayton Weatherston, to chose a random example) get sent down and to feel relatively sanguine at the prospect of him serving particularly hard time. However, rationally we don’t want prisons to be places where violence – sexual or otherwise – is perpetrated by muscular scuzzballs on less robust scuzzballs, and we particularly don’t want our Minister of Police winkingly condoning this sort of behavior.

I hope that Collins is called to account for these remarks – in a week where headline writers had less pressing concerns, it is not impossible a comment like this could land a politician in very hot water – “Police Minister Calls for Rape”.

While we are at it, Bronwlee and Key seem remarkably enthusiastic about bulldozing large chunks of Christchurch without waiting for expert opinions about alternatives.

I am a poster who said they should throw the book at looters when this story turned up. Hindsight is a powerful weapon. I wonder how many others thought the same thing as me. I suspect half the bloody country.

Logically, it is possible he was caught and beaten by residents, or roughed up by fellow prisoners -- which may not may not have required a blind eye from the people with the keys. Probably best not to jump to conclusions. (Like the 22 people supposedly under the rubble of the Cathedral)

OK, Russell, time to by-pass the diseased monkey and go straight to the organ grinder. Who the frak holds Laws' choke chain at Radio Live, because I'd like to have a civil (but free and frank) word on why I'm embarrassed to share a platform with this prick.

I must admit I am uncomfortable seeing people minimize theft from a damaged house, whether it is light fittings or anything else. Any sort of theft in these circumstances is hard to countenance, at least when committed by someone who is otherwise mentally competent, and not motivated by truly pressing and immediate need.

I'm with Richard. And I'm not someone to leap to defence of our 'boys-own-in-blue' club, but I honestly do see this as just as likely being at the hands of 'concerned citizens' or other prisoners (though that wouldn't excuse the police leaving him in a cell to suffer).

And presumably there's an assault investigation being carried out as we speak. After all the police quite likely know who these concerned citizens were, they certainly know who was in the cell. And assault is more serious than theft, right?

Probably there was some 'resisting arrest', or maybe even resisting arrest, who knows, no evidence yet, and likely never will be actual evidence.

Thanks Russell for calling people to account over this horrendous event. There are just too many people vulnerable like this, and I know several. There has been recent police training in Aspergers (even in Christchurch) but this shows that events can overshadow what might be more straightforward in normal times.

George, I wrote to her, and she replied saying she was appalled that anyone would think that. I replied asking what she did mean. I have not heard back.

Same situation with my sister and me. We're discussing bringing it to the Herald's attention that she seems to be implying they may have misquoted her!

We do have another long convoluted theory wherein she thinks that double bunking is in itself a punishment and since she was behind bringing it in in the first place would have strong reason to be in denial about the fact that it increases the risk of assault (both physical and sexual). It's somewhat weak though. The idea that she is actually unable to understand why people would read it the way we have seems rather farfetched.